Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts. At the age of four, his father died of yellow fever, forcing his family to move in with his uncle. His influential uncle Robert Manning pushed Hawthorne to succeed in school and insisted he go to college. After his education at Bowdoin College, Hawthorne spent years in seclusion mastering the art of writing. It was during those years that Hawthorne discovered that his ancestors were the Puritan founders and leaders of the Salem witch trials. Shortly after this tragic discovery, he wrote “Young Goodman Brown,” a short story considered one of the greatest in American literature. Analyzing Nathaniel Hawthorne's work from a moral perspective can help illuminate his short story: "Good Young Man Brown." Hawthorne was both proud and embarrassed by his ancestors' actions. According to Jacqueline Shoemaker, Hawthorne felt proud seeing his own family's history in Salem and their prominence and accomplishments which greatly overshadowed the declining fortunes of later generations (Shoemaker). However, following the discovery of his ancestors' association with the immoral prosecution of Quakers during the Salem witch trials, Hawthorne's feelings of embarrassment began to override his feelings of pride. Hawthorne's ancestors not only took part in the immoral Salem witch trials, but were also their leaders; they were responsible for the massacre of many innocent men and women during the late 1600s. Nina Baym states that, despite feeling guilty over the actions of his ancestors, Hawthorne changed his surname from "Hathorne" to "Hawthorne" "as a gesture of separation from the judgmental people who had hanged the witches and wanted nothing to do with his mother ..... middle of the paper ......iel. Wilfred L., Earle G. Labor, Lee Morgan, and John R. Willingham. New York: Harper & Row Publishers. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. paperback anthology. R. S. Gwynn. New York: Pearson Education Inc., 2007. 28-33. Kant, Immanuel. “Consciousness.” Introduction to Great Books. Chicago: The Great Books Foundation, 1990. 93. Levy, Leo B. "The Problem of Belief in 'Young Goodman Brown'." Modern Critical Opinions: Nathaniel Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1986. 117. Shoemaker, Jacqueline “Hawthorne's Kingdom of Morality.” Biographical contexts for "YoungGoodman Brown". July 27, 1998. November 27, 2011 wohlpart/alra/hawthorne.htm#a pink ribbon>.